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Alex Kava ListingsIf you cannot find what you want on this page, then please use our search feature to search all our listings. Click on Title to view full description
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Alex Kava A Perfect Evil (Maggie O'Dell Novels)
Mira 20010701 1551668246 / 9781551668246 MM Very Good
1551668246 Amazon Review Nick Morrelli is the Platte City, Nebraska, sheriff who must be smarter than he appears, since there's a framed Harvard law degree hanging on his wall. Not that appearances don't count. The reader is treated to a number of descriptions of his sexy, lady-killer looks and his charismatic effect on even the most hard-bitten woman character in this somewhat muddled, serial-killer thriller. Nick is investigating the kidnap-murders of two young Platte City boys when FBI profiler Maggie O'Dell shows up and all but takes over the investigation. Several years earlier, the former sheriff--Nick's father--capped his own career with the arrest of the last serial killer in the neighborhood, who abducted and tortured three boys in an eerily similar crime spree. When Antonio Morrelli returns from retirement to meddle in the investigation, and when Nick's own sister uses her connections to advance his career, Nick hardly raises an objection. And that's the central weakness of what would otherwise be a good, first effort. --Jane Adams --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Publishers Weekly A serial killer eludes an FBI profiler and a smalltown Nebraska sheriff in Kava's engaging debut, which manages to remain entertaining despite a fairly conventional plot line. As the story opens, recently appointed Sheriff Nick Morelli is as relieved as the rest of the citizens of Platte City that his predecessor, who also happens to be his father, has captured the child killer who plagued the town. But after the killer is executed, another child is discovered dead, and Morelli realizes that the convicted man was in fact a copycat killer, leaving the original criminal still on the prowl. Morelli gets some much-needed help in the investigation from FBI profiler Maggie O'Dell, but the hunt gets complicated when Morelli's sister, a journalist, leaks info to the media. Things become even stickier when O'Dell unearths a couple of unlikely suspects who've been dismissed by the police, and the search takes on a new level of urgency when Morelli's nephew is abducted and appears to be the next victim. Kava keeps her prose simple, but she does a nice job of setting up the chemistry between O'Dell and Morelli while balancing the various family issues Morelli faces in the investigation. She also makes good use of the smalltown milieu, tightening the tension by establishing that the killer is part of the fabric of the community. The result is a well-crafted page-turner involving the reader in the specter of murder in an intimate and disturbing fashion, with a plausible setup for a sequel. Agent, Philip Spitzer. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. May ship from alternate location depending on your zip code and availability.
Price:
1.69 USD
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Alex Kava At The Stroke Of Madness (Maggie O'Dell, Book 4)
Mira 20040701 0778320553 / 9780778320555 MM Very Good
0778320553 From Publishers Weekly The fourth novel in the Maggie O'Dell series (A Perfect Evil; Split Second; Soul Catcher) features a serial killer with a taste for grisly butchery. At the outset of a long overdue vacation, FBI special agent O'Dell agrees to investigate a simple missing person case for her good friend, psychologist Gwen Patterson. Coincidentally, in the quiet Connecticut small town where Gwen's patient was last seen, a barrel containing a dead body is discovered in an abandoned rock quarry. Maggie offers her services to the local sheriff because she needs to rule out the possibility that the victim is Gwen's patient. Professor Adam Bonzado, a forensic anthropologist and friend of the sheriff, is already at work; a dozen or more 55-gallon barrels have surfaced. As they're pried open, releasing the telltale nauseating stench, an odd assortment of cannibalized victims come to light, including a female breast cancer survivor-her breast implants cut out and removed-and an embalmed corpse, brain missing. Chapters narrated from the point of view of Gwen's missing patient (she's alive but in dire straits) and the paranoid killer alternate with accounts of the tedious work of the coroner and the anthropologist. As Maggie processes the information they provide, she also ministers to elderly but endearing Luc Racine, who lives near the quarry. His Jack Russell terrier keeps bringing him human bones, but since Luc is fighting Alzheimer's he may or may not be a viable witness. Kava's plotting is capable, but there's only a hint of romance and little humor to provide relief from the lashings of gore. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Review "Maggie is gutsy and appealing as an FBI agent facing constant danger." -- Library Journal May ship from alternate location depending on your zip code and availability.
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1.69 USD
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Alex Kava Split Second (Maggie O'Dell Novels)
Mira 2002 1551669153 / 9781551669151 Mass Market Paperback Good
1551669153 From the Publisher Some say Maggie O'Dell has lost her edge as one of the FBI's best profilers. Since capturing Stucky, she has been walking a tightwire, battling nightmares and guilt over the victims she couldn't save. Now that Stucky is loose again, she's been pulled out of the field. But as Stucky's trail of victims leads closer and closer to Maggie, she is put back on the case under the supervision of Special Agent R. J. Tully. Together they race against the clock to hunt the killer, and Maggie finds herself pushed to the very edge. Has her desire to stop Albert Stucky become a matter of personal vengeance? Has she crossed the line? And has that been Stucky's goal all along-to make her into a monster? Library Journal Maggie is gutsy and appealing as an FBI agent facing constant danger. Washington Post Book World Alex Kava has crafted . . . a winning character in Agent O'Dell. Mystery Scene A suspense thriller with enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing until the last page. Washington Post Book World Alex Kava has crafted a suspenseful novel and created a winning character in Agent O'Dell. Dallas Morning News . . . first novel is a formidable one, filled with characters comfortable with themselves and acting out their roles intelligently and believably. Woman's Own . . . a roller coaster read. Although your heart is in your throat the entire time, you enjoy every scary minute. Publishers Weekly FBI profiler Maggie O'Dell, star of Kava's first thriller, is back again in her second, but her return is not a happy one. From the very first scene, in which serial killer Albert Stucky escapes from two pitifully inadequate prison guards, through the inevitable and apparently endless escalation of brutality (usually against women), to the predictable ending, this is strictly a blender job: part Thomas Harris and part Patricia Cornwell, with odd bones and scraps tossed in from other similarly grisly and more successful sources. O'Dell, who plays Clarice Starling to Stucky's Hannibal Lecter, is still physically and mentally scarred by the two years she spent on his case and she's fighting to get back on it. She gets her wish. Before she can even unpack the boxes in her new home, one of her neighbors disappears, leaving behind a bloody mess, and another is found dead in a Dumpster. Soon, Stucky strikes even closer to home. The supporting cast is full of cardboard cutouts unsuccessfully masquerading as characters, and since O'Dell herself is so miserable from the start, it's hard to care whether or not she and Stucky ever do make it to their final showdown or, for that matter, which of them survives. Kava's hackneyed prose doesn't help matters: "Dear God! How much longer could she put up with the nightmares?" Probably longer than a lot of readers will put up with this book. (Aug.) Forecast: Kava's first O'Dell vehicle, A Perfect Evil, was widely praised, and Mira is looking to build on that success with a national ad campaign, a teaser chapter in the Perfect Evil paperback and a multicity author tour. Fans may go along for the ride, but Kava won't recruit many new readers with this one.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information. Kirkus Reviews Blackhearted serial killer vs. stouthearted female FBI agent, Round Two. In Kava's debut (A Perfect Evil, 2000), Agent Maggie O'Dell out-pointed Albert (The Collector) Stuckey and sent him up the river-but, alas, not permanently. On his way to the slammer, monstrous, misogynistic, and ever-so-opportunistic Stuckey takes advantage of jailer ineptitude and breaks free. A single thought then dominates his cankered brain: payback. Maggie O'Dell must be made to suffer in spades for the ignominious defeat inflicted on so eminent an evil genius. No hurry, though. In addition to being endlessly wicked, Stuckey is prodigiously rich; early on, before his schizoid self was outed, he made several (nonhomicidal) killings in the stock market. He can afford to luxuriate in the prospect of requited vengefulness, play the kind of cat-and-mouse game certain types of serial killer May ship from alternate location depending on your zip code and availability.
Price:
1.59 USD
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Alex Kava Whitewash (MIRA)
Mira 0778324400 / 9780778324409 Hardcover Good
0778324400 Former library book with the usual markings and stickers, otherwise clean inside and out May ship from alternate location depending on your zip code and availability.
Price:
1.65 USD
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Alex Kava Whitewash (MIRA)
Mira 0778324400 / 9780778324409 Hardcover Good
0778324400 Former library book with the usual markings and stickers, otherwise clean inside and out May ship from alternate location depending on your zip code and availability.
Price:
1.65 USD
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7 |
Alex Kava Whitewash (MIRA)
Mira 0778324400 / 9780778324409 Hardcover Good
0778324400 Former library book with the usual markings and stickers, otherwise clean inside and out May ship from alternate location depending on your zip code and availability.
Price:
0.65 USD
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